The aging population in Montgomery and Prince George's counties is often the topic of discussion among local planning officials, with the Baby Boom generation entering the retirement years.
That makes this area, with its millions of boomers—many of whom who came to DC decades ago and settled in—a prime audience for what The Washington Post calls a captivating photo exhibit of the 1970s, a decade known for disco, polyester, pollution and political strife.
The exhibit, Searching for the Seventies: The Documerica Photography Project, seeks to tell the story of the turbulent decade in a series of color photographs taken for the Federal Documerica project.
The Environmental Protection Agency initiated the project in 1971 to document the “environmental awakening” and “that era’s environmental problems and achievements,” according to a press release from the National Archives. A chronicle of the culture, people and trends of the decade emerged, according to The Post.
The exhibit features approximately 90 photographs resulting from the efforts of Gifford Hampshire, a WWI veteran who directed the original project, according to The Post.
Click here to read the article from The Post.
Visitors to the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery at the National Archives can view images chronicling smog in Alabama, shoreline chemical plants in Louisiana, religious fervor in Chicago, children playing in front of a smelting stack pumping out arsenic and lead residue in Washington state and much more.
There are also plenty of bell bottoms, sideburns and polyester.
The exhibit is free and is scheduled to run through Sept. 8.
